Hamilton man may have 3 extra kidneys

A Hamilton man has just found out he could have five kidneys, instead of the usual two.

Brigham Nordstrom, 28, a law student, made the discovery on Monday when he was admitted to Waikato Hospital with a kidney infection.

"The doctors took a scan. Then I had to get a second one done, they wanted to have another look."

Doctors had found one duplex kidney and one triplex kidney. Instead of having one tube or ureter joining each kidney to the bladder, Mr Nordstrom had two tubes on the left and three on the right.

Accordingly, the duplex kidney has two parts and the triplex has three parts, meaning it is quite likely Mr Nordstrom has five kidneys altogether.

Despite his highly unusual innards, Mr Nordstrom said that for 27 years he never knew any difference.

He is now awaiting an MRI scan to confirm the multiple kidneys, but doctors have told him there is nothing wong with having extra ureters.

He and his wife, who have a seven-month-old daughter, said urology doctors told them there was nothing to worry about and his health would be unaffected.

"They just said he was a bit more interesting than the normal man," wife Leianne said. Her husband would not be donating any of the extra parts. "He's a generous guy but he wouldn't have contemplated that and neither has it been asked of him. [Doctors] said any type of surgery has complications."

Mr Nordstrom said he was preparing for "a bit of ribbing" from his family and friends about the discovery. "One of my brothers has such a big appetite that he's been joking about having three stomachs."

Overseas, a 17-year-old Chinese girl, a Serbian man, a Latvian man and two European brothers all made headlines when doctors discovered they each had four kidneys. Waikato Times